In the world of title and graphics animation as it applies to 3-Dimensional (3D) Real Time Rendering, the standard approach to rendering complex visual 3D models for real time playback, including real time data updates (for example sports scoreboards, stock tickers, weather, news, and all manner of live graphics used in broadcast production that are meant to display up to date information as it comes in) is to build hardware graphics systems that are powerful enough to accomplish converting data into graphics in real time. However, this always puts an upper limit of aesthetic complexity and necessitates very expensive hardware. Meanwhile, the dramatic rise in low cost computers with decent graphics ability and explosion of live streamed broadcasting necessitates the need for an affordable way to create responsive, yet aesthetically complex, animated graphics on a wide range of systems.
Similarly, in the world of title and graphics animation in 2-Dimensional (2D) Real Time Rendering applications, the standard approach for fast 2D rendering and drawing alphanumeric values or characters efficiently is to create images of each character and then position them at the appropriate position in the display output such as a monitor or television. For example, to display “00:00”, the general method is to take the rendered “0” and draw it onto the display four times, each offset by the appropriate amount. This approach is very efficient, but can have several drawbacks such as 1) It may be very specific, requiring knowledge of everything necessary to position the letters, including kerning and other font information; 2) If the design intends to show different digits in different ways (for example, increasing the size and changing the shading of the leading digit), this information may become even more specific and complicated; and 3) It limits the render to only letters. However, depending on the design of the title and graphics template, it may be desirable to interpret the data value in an entirely different way.
What is highly desirable is a title and graphics animation production and playback mechanism which does not become involved in the specific details of the actual graphics rendering methodology used to create a particular result, but instead can be applied to many different graphics rendering engines with the intended goal of converting such systems, that rarely can render in real time, into fully responsive real time graphics systems. Such a system should have the power of the full 3D system as well as the speed and efficiency of the 2D display system. Additionally, what is needed is a rendering production mechanism that is completely removed from any creative aspects of the title and graphic design itself. Graphic designers should not be required to focus on the implementation and real time performance details of their designs. Conversely, implementers of the systems should not be required to understand and work around the requirements of the specific design and render technology.